KCTV

Contents

KCMO-TV

1953–1955

KCMO-TV signed on the air on September 27, 1953. The station was owned by the KCMO Broadcasting Corporation along with KCMO radio. It was originally an ABC affiliate with DuMont programming. A week after its launch, Meredith Broadcasting acquired KCMO-AM-TV and this merger was completed less than two months later.

KCTV

1983–1990

On June 7, 1983, KCMO-TV changed its call letters to KCTV after its radio sisters were sold off. It also moved its operations to Fairway, Kansas; on the Kansas side of the market. The newscast title Eyewitness News remained until 1985, and became Kansas City's News (putting it line with the station's then-slogan "Kansas City's Television").

1990–1993

1993–1999

The "Kansas City's Television" slogan and the Kansas City's News branding were retired in 1993. The title of KCTV's newscasts became News 5, thus adopting the station slogan "5 Stands for News"; that slogan lasted until 1997 when it adopted "Taking Action" as its slogan until 1999.

1999–2002

In 1999, KCTV eliminated the "5" as their main logo and introduced a stylized "tower" with seismic waves. It represents the station's 1,042-foot transmitter tower at its former studios on East 31st Street on Union Hill south of Downtown Kansas City. During this time, the current newscast title KCTV 5 News was adopted. The slogan for this era was "News That Makes a Difference".

2002–2011

In 2002, KCTV switched to a more traditional logo with a large italic "5". The colors were also changed to red, white, and blue (which were meant to be patriotic colors commemorating the first year anniversary of 9/11). The slogan during this period was "Live. Late-Breaking. Investigative." This same slogan was also used for sister station KPHO from 2002 to 2008.